Shadows of New Jerusalem

Session 11

Two weeks later, as life returns to (relative) normal, the Shadow family focus on the most important event of the month – opening the Shadow Market for one day, dusk to dusk, so that the occult underground, the denizens of the Other Realms and randos off the street can buy, sell and trade weirdness to their heart’s content.

As folks begin filtering in from the street and the portals below, Thomas roams the ramshackle aisles of the Market, still leaning on a cane as he recovers from being shot by Eamon Burnbridge. Charlotte coordinates events from what used to be the ticket booth when the Market was a train station, still melancholy from the events in the Cloisters – and with an ache in her chest, courtesy of the seven-pointed-star scar that appeared when she bound the fate magic of the Book of Dead Names into herself. Just what that means, she’s still not sure, but nothing seems quite the same now.

Gwen patrols the Market, customers staring and murmuring as she passes because they’ve seen the video of her and Grant Walker fighting Satanists two weeks ago. It went viral, but not that viral – and after she and Arthur spent a night in custody, the police told them not to talk to the press and let them go. The official story is that Walker busted up the cult, with minor assistance from Gwen as a concerned citizen – and remarkably, the cameras livestreaming everything somehow missed every supernatural occurrence and demonic manifestation. Gwen’s happy to let it all go, even though she’s sure there’s more to the story; right now, she’s keeping an eye out for Burnbridge.

And Arthur? He’s got his hands full keeping the Market going. No time for other concerns.
Over the hours of the Market’s operations, the Shadows keep things moving, sort out conflicts and work with their contacts. There’s an argument over the difference between occult spoons and sporks that nearly gets ugly; some mortals emerge from the portal to the Feylands, on the run and confused by how small mobile phones have become; a paper homunculus forms from a book and runs off into the darkness; a lamp seller gets momentarily possessed by some kind of antique spirit… the list goes on. At one point, a trio of thugs from the Trollbloods (a street gang with traces of fey/troll ancestry) get rowdy, but Gwen intimidates them into being quiet; they retire to the market’s mezzanine, where they plot to rob the place when it closes (and after they have a sleep). The Shadows work in shifts, taking naps and rests when they can, recharging with Charlotte’s slightly magical teas when necessary.

And then, of course, there are visitors.

Ned Chan stops by early to help out here and there, marvelling at the bizarre sights and sounds, and blushing when his and Charlotte’s eyes or hands meet.

The demon Annuberg, beaten and burned, begs Gwen for sanctuary from the Butcher Bishop, who was not pleased with how he negotiated away Thomas’ servitude. He tells Gwen that the Bishop deliberately put her in conflict with the Satanists, expecting her and Walker to succeed, and making sure the event went public online. It was all a ploy to encourage more faith and less cynicism in the public, slowing the flood of corrupt souls destabilising Hell’s soul-based economy, so that the Bishop can gain more financial power. And Annuberg warns Gwen that the Bishop is not done with the Shadows yet.

Spindrift, the fey librarian, tells Thomas that she’s entered the service of the Argent Lord; she wants to know what happened to Herne and the Book. When told that both are gone, she says that she can feel the fate magic from the Book nearby, magic the Fey need to fight off the advances of the Butcher Bishop – and that if the Shadows won’t give them that magic, they’ll have to take it by force.

Thomas also has an encounter with occult book dealer Coleridge, who seems more interested in spying on the Shadows then of perusing the Market’s shelves. After some mutual insults, Coleridge leaves with a flea in his ear – and a few muttered threats involving the company he now keeps.

Councillor Edward Hampton, dressed down in a hoodie, tells Gwen that he was instrumental in keeping her and Arthur out of the furore over the Satanist raid, as further payment for rescuing his children. He also tells her that he wants to push back against the Rosicrucian infiltration of the Mayor’s office – and he has designs on the top job himself. Gwen is into it; they shake hands and make plans to work together.

Marrow appears to Arthur to demand repayment of the debt to the Priestess of Spiders, which is… for the Shadows to take a brass-and-leather arm, clearly related to the Head they took from the chimera, and to ‘do something’ with it. The Priestess wants chaos – and whatever the Shadows do will aid that cause. Arthur accepts the gift, reluctantly – and the Arm moves within the burlap sack holding it. Just for a moment.

Miss Victoria, the ghost that taught Charlotte witchcraft, appears just long enough to scream YOU! WILL! PAY! to her former student, then vanishes in a puff of poltergeist activity and ectoplasm. Charlotte makes more tea.
Finally, of course, Valentine makes an appearance, and Arthur walks her around the Market in its waning hours. The Rosicrucian leader downplays her interest, but Arthur can tell that she wants more from the Market than she lets on – and he tries his best to mislead her, not wanting her to guess that portals to the Other Realms open in the train tunnels below.

As dusk approaches, the Shadows close up the Market, knock out the Trollbloods with some drugged beer before they can try anything, lock up the gates and count their money. It’s been a long day, and the end of a very trying month – but they’ve made a tidy profit, and the family business will continue for another day.

In the aftermath of the Market, the Trollblood ringleader gets into a car with Coleridge and Eamon Burnbridge to discuss next steps. Vic Shadow wakes up hungover in a windowless cell. And after a night’s sleep, Charlotte wakes to find the train station cordoned off with official barricades, with signs saying it’s to be demolished/remodelled by the city government – and guarded by cops with Rose-and-Cross tattoos!

Life has never been more complicated for the Shadow family.
How will they cope?
Perhaps one day we’ll find out.

Session 10

In the old University cloisters, a maze of tunnels, forgotten rooms and sewer entrances, four people search the darkness:

Ned Chan wakes in a pool of ectoplasm, finds a bullet-broken human skull near a wall of shadow, and makes a break for freedom as the swarm of ghosts bubbles to life and chases him.

Charlotte Shadow makes her way down, looking for Ned, but instead finds a broken skeleton in an abandoned hallway – a skeleton that animates and calls her name

Thomas Shadow continues his search for goblin sweat for a Market customer, and follows traces of fey activity into the cloisters

And Eamon Burnbridge follows Thomas at a distance, determined to kill the old man as vengeance against the Shadow family.

Charlotte realises the skeleton is Dead Ringer; she helps him up, and he tells her that he was ambushed by Herne the Hunter and his goblin minions, who want the Book of Dead Names, while trying to make his way back to his gateway to the Underworld. Ned, in turn, runs into those goblins after finally escaping the ghost swarm; he tries to sneak past him, but they catch and attack him just as Charlotte and Dead Ringer find him!
As the tunnels become darker and closer, Thomas decides to head back to the surface. Burnbridge ambushes him from hiding, but his high-tech modern gun fails to fire in Thomas’ presence. The two old men grapple for a while, but Thomas blinks away using magic, making his escape – only to hear his niece shout from down below. Cursing, he goes back down to help his family – and Burnbridge follows after. Thomas doesn’t find Charlotte, though – instead he stumbles across the gutshot Herne, lying in a pool of green blood.

Charlotte blows the goblins into trash with witchcraft and rescues Ned, who processes the presence of a talking skeleton relatively calmly. They prop up Dead Ringer between them and they make their way towards the portal – the place where Ned woke up and found the skull. Dead Ringer’s skull, in fact – the portal is the place where he was murdered, decades and decades ago. He explains a little of how the undead are born from mortal deaths, and that their numbers are dwindling; fewer and fewer mortals hold on to existence after death, instead passing to whatever lies beyond. That’s why the Book of Dead Names is important to him and his allies (‘The Lodge’) – if a mortal’s name is written in it, and they die within 24 hours, they are fated to become undead, bound to the Book. Charlotte is very disturbed by this, and the potential it might have to be abused – but still, they continue downwards.

Herne knows of Thomas, the mortal who escaped the grip of both Arcadia and Hell, and asks for his help in retrieving the Book of Dead Names. Arcadia has owed a debt to Hell for time immemorial, and the strength of the fey ebbs as the debt grows larger; soon Arcadia will fall to the expansionist schemes of the Butcher Bishop of the Church Infernal. The Book is a powerful knot of fate magic, created for reasons unknown; if claimed by the fae, that magic could help hold off Hell. Thomas agrees to help the Hunter, for the moment, and supports him as they search the tunnels.

Both parties come together in the lower levels of the cloisters, at a nexus of catwalks where deeps waters rush by below – and where Burnbridge already lies in wait. Dead Ringer and Herne spot each other, but before they can act, Burnbridge shoots Thomas in the leg – and the ghost swarm bursts from the water in a storm of screaming ectoplasm!
Trying to save her uncle, Charlotte pleads with the ghost to stop Burnbridge, and they swarm over the enforcer. Herne rushes at Dead Ringer, who pulls an ancient pistol from his empty chest cavity, revealing the Book hidden there as well, and Ned is caught in their chaotic melee. Burnbridge fires wildly as Thomas blinks across to tackle him, and the ghosts pull away to mob Charlotte instead, screaming and crying at her in anger and loss. Ned grabs the Book from Dead Ringer’s chest, and Charlotte does something desperate – she releases her spirit from her body and astrally projects into the Book, the ghosts following after!

Ned runs into off with the Book, and Dead Ringer tries to shoot him – but Herne grabs him and they both fall into the churning waters below. Burnbridge overpowers the wounded Thomas, readies a knife to stab him – and instead leaves him alive, as a message for Gwen that she’s next. He vanishes into the darkness as Thomas crawls over to his niece’s lifeless body and tries CPR.

Charlotte’s spirit flies through a tunnel of swirling grey light, the ghosts swarming after, to find the knot of magic at the heart of the Book – a vast seven-pointed star of energy, on which ghosts hang limp and wretched on hooks. As the star’s spiritual gravity drags her down, Charlotte pours out all her magical power and soul in an attempt to destroy it, but it’s not enough. In desperation, she draws on her link to another artifact of fate, the Scroll of Future Places, and exchanges the fate she glimpsed there for the one at the core of the Book. Incompatible fates tear each other apart, and the vast star explodes, releasing both the ghosts bound to the Book and those following her. The Book tears itself apart in Ned’s hands in a shower of paper and ectoplasm, and Charlotte jolts back to life!

Wounded and weary, the Shadows and Ned slowly make their way back to the surface to find warmth and medical attention – and to wonder what Gwen and Arthur were doing all this time…

Session 9

Grant Walker, a good cop who knows a bit about New Jerusalem’s occult underground, tells Gwen and Arthur that he’s been looking into the same missing child cases that Gwen’s been investigating.
Since Gwen rescued the Hampton children a month ago, five more children have gone missing – all from poor families in the city’s slums, with Major Crimes writing them off as unconnected custody/runaway cases. Over the weekend, videos have been uploaded to YouTube and social media sites, to-camera rants from a man dressed in robes, talking about the power of Satan and his plans to take what he desires. The last one, uploaded this morning, showed a glimpse of what looked like children in cages – and the ranting Satanist proclaiming that he’ll make a grand sacrifice to the Devil at midnight, claiming supernatural power and proving that goodness and morality are meaningless.

Walker is convinced that these are the missing children, but the police aren’t taking the videos seriously; desperate for help and backup (because the Satanists in the videos look like they may have guns), he’s come to Gwen as the only person who might know more about this case. Gwen does know more, more than Walker expected; when he shows her the videos, she realises that they were shot in the abandoned New Jerusalem Children’s Hospital – abandoned because she set fire to it 15+ years ago in an attempt to stop a monster, an attempt that left children dead and her life in tatters. She confers with Arthur, and though Charlotte is in trouble, they agree that they have to prioritise helping Walker rescue the children and stop the Satanists. As night falls, they head out to the abandoned hospital, on the very edge of the city’s slum district, and Arthur learns more about Walker – a cop and self-taught ‘gutter mage’ using the tools of supernatural evil to fight supernatural evil.
The hospital is an old brick building, burned-out and ruined, but they see lights shining within and cars parked nearby. Sneaking in through the sewers, they discover a booby trap monitored by a digital video camera – the same kind stolen by ram-raiders from a local camera shop just days ago. Passing the trap, they make their way into the burned-out basement of the hospital, where Gwen encountered something horrific years ago – and where they now encounter a couple of armed guards. In a frenzied rush, Gwen, Arthur and Walker rush the cultists, grab weapons and fight their way up and through the abandoned hospital, kicking the butts of all their opponents, narrowly avoiding serious injury and finding more DV cameras and Go-Pros recording events.
At the top of the building, they discover the children locked in cages, and the cult leader – armed with an assault rifle – guarding them. Arthur and Walker distract him as Gwen gets into position, and she takes him down (lethally) before he can hurt any of his captives – but not before he calls forth his trump card, a vicious hound-demon called Erubaz that Walker has encountered before. As Arthur tries to free the children, Gwen fights the demon hand-to-hand (her second demon fight just this week), and Walker calls on his gutter magic tricks to bind the creature and send it back to hell. With the police approaching, the children are freed, and Walker realises that the binding circle used to contain Erubaz shouldn’t have actually worked – and that the cameras in the hospital have been broadcasting live to the internet throughout this terrifying raid.

And in the black iron cathedral of the Church Infernal, in the depths of Hell, the Butcher Bishop learns that Walker and the Shadows have foiled the Satanic cult – and he laughs, and laughs, and laughs…

Session 8

It’s been one hell of a week for the Shadow family, so they’re grateful for a couple of days in which nothing too eventful happens. On Friday, Arthur and Gwen meet a couple of Rosicrucian operatives in Century Park, handing over the Head of Fludd in exchange for a briefcase full of money – enough to make life significantly easier for a while.

With Thomas off doing his own thing, the others spend Saturday preparing for the next Shadow Market in two weeks, then go out for drinks at Vic’s favourite bar, the 8-Ball Haemorrhage. Arthur is approached by a man trying to sell ‘unusual antiquities’, who had arranged to sell them to the Rosicrucians only for them to cancel the sale – since Arthur has a growing reputation as a rival/foil for the Rosicrucians, he hopes the Shadows will help him find a buyer. Arthur is interested until he realises the man is trading in Nazi memorabilia, and sends him packing. This prompts a discussion about the Rosicrucians as a whole, whether the Shadows know enough about the group and if they really want to set themselves in opposition. The discussion continues as the Shadows eat at Hong’s 24-hour Noodle House and then go back to the 8-Ball Haemorrhage for more drinks, with Charlotte interjecting whenever she finds anything interesting on the Rosicrucians’ Wikipedia entry.

On Sunday, Charlotte heads to New Jerusalem University to go exploring the cloisters with Ned Chan and the Cave Clan (not noticing the tiny wisp-ghost stowing away in her backpack). It’s a small group – just the two of them plus Amy (an anthropology student) and Rat (a grumpy computer science student) – and Ned takes the lead, getting them through secure doors into the old tunnels underneath the university complex. The group treks through old storage rooms and access ladders, Amy photographing 1970s graffiti for her thesis, Rat filming background scenes for a rail shooter, the wisp-ghost tumbling through shadows into the sewers below and Ned bravely claiming that he didn’t mean this as a date despite clearly meaning it to be a date. Fortunately, Charlotte is observant enough to find the other two when they get lost, and fast enough to save Ned’s life with a quick spell when he falls through a broken catwalk!
Ned has fallen into the University’s disused generator complex, a collection of engines, boilers and machines that used to power the whole campus decades ago. It’s all dusty, broken and abandoned now, but there are signs of recent activity. Amy finds chalk graffiti on a boiler saying CALLTHESHADOWS, with a severed skeletal hand still holding the chalk nearby, while Rat finds a patch of greenish blood surrounding a bullet hole on a wall.

Before they can investigate further, the old machines rattle and shake, and a cacophony of shrieks and wails rise from below, as a swarm of maddened ghosts boils up from the sewers, calling Charlotte’s name! She’s the only one who can see them, but everyone knows that something’s wrong, and the Cavers run for the surface as the foamy mass of ghosts pursues them.

Charlotte directs the Clan as Ned opens doors and pushes away obstacles, but the ghosts are close behind and gaining on them. As they get close to the surface, Ned tries to draw the ghosts away to save Charlotte and the others. Charlotte doesn’t want to be saved, and tries to stop him, but too late – the ghosts engulf Ned and draw him back down into the tunnels! Charlotte texts her family, asking them to come help, and then goes back down into the darkness to find her friend.

Back at the antiques shop, Gwen has returned from a day of investigating the child disappearance case, and Arthur from working his connections to learn more about the Rosicrucians. They get Charlotte’s text and prepare to leave, but a stranger comes into the shop. He flashes a badges, identifies himself as Detective Grant Walker from the New Jerusalem police, and says he needs their help to find the missing children – before a Satanic cult sacrifices them to the Devil at midnight tonight!

Session 7

Daraja Valentine, city media manager and Rosicrucian leader, arrives at the Shadow Market, flanked by bodyguards, functionaries and Eamon Burnbridge (sporting a cast on his smashed hand). Everyone sits down in the refurbished train carriage that the Shadows use as an office, and things immediately get off to a rocky start.

Valentine has had enough of the Shadows interfering in her activities – not just them finding the Head of Fludd, but also their theft of the Butcher Bishop’s mitre, as well as the scam that Vic and Arthur tried to pull on her a few months earlier. She wants her property back, she wants the Shadows to mind their own business, and in a perfect world she’d like them to get out of New Jerusalem entirely.

Faced with this, Charlotte gets aggressive and says that there’s no proof that the Head belongs to Valentine. When the Rosicrucians produce a bill of sale and supporting documents, she pushes back, saying that they won’t give back the Head if it’s going to be used for evil purposes – a rule, Arthur confirms, they hold to for all trades in the Shadow Market.
Negotiations go on like this for a while. Burnbridge talks about how he could happily burn down the Market with the Shadows inside, and Valentine produces documents to show she could do the same to the family’s finances. In response, Thomas and Gwen make it clear that they can hit back if needed, and that Valentine has a lot more to lose from noise, scandal and trouble than they do. Charlotte tries to appeal to Valentine’s better nature, to no avail, but does learn that the Head is not a weapon but more of a ‘computation engine’.

Finally, once all the threats and promises have been exchanged, Arthur manages to convince Valentine that it’s better to pay them a finder’s fee for the Head and leave them alone than to escalate the issue. Burnbridge is outraged by this and tries to start an argument, but she shuts him down fast. With payment and handover scheduled for the following night, the Rosicrucians leave, and Valentine tells Arthur that she hopes to never see any of them again,

After all that tension, the meeting later that night with Dead Ringer is somewhat anticlimactic. The undead merchant comes in after sundown, with a $4000 payment for the Book of Dead Names. The Shadows are uncertain about handing it over, as the information Charlotte found in the Library of Lost Dreams suggests it can be used to doom anyone whose name is written in it. Dead Ringer tells them that that’s not true, and that the Book can’t be used to hurt anyone – and the skeleton salesman is so persuasive that they all believe him.

At the end of a long day, the Shadows retire to the kitchen to count their money and have a drink. Dead Ringer walks back through the city towards a portal to the Underworld, not noticing Herne the Hunter stalking him. Eamon Burnbridge drinks alone in the 8-Ball Haemorrhage, growing angrier and angrier. And somewhere in the city, a figure sets up a row of video cameras in a room, across from half-a-dozen terrified children locked in cages…

Session 6

Thomas jerks awake at 2am from a nightmare about spiders, paralysis and being hunted by Herne. He comes downstairs to find a bruised Vic drinking neat vodka, his ‘hand of glory’ expedition a bust. They have a drink and talk about their fears and failures until dawn, which lets Thomas put yesterday’s encounter with Marrow behind him.

Eventually the rest of the family rouses, and they talk about what to do about their Rosicrucian problems. Everyone pokes at the brass-and-crystal head, and they realise that some of it is actual bone – it’s as if a real human skull had been partially transformed into metal. Thomas recalls that the 17th century astrologer Robert Fludd, a Rosicrucian, had his skull stolen after his death – could this be related?
Concerned about retaliation against Oliver, Arthur checks in with his hospital contact, while Charlotte touches base with Ned Chan. Both confirm that Oliver is fine for now, hidden in the basement of St Jude’s – although Ned thinks he may have seen one of the Rosicrucian thugs in the hospital. (He also asks Charlotte to come exploring with the Cave Clan on the weekend.) Making his phone call on the street, Arthur sees that a nearby electronics shop has been ram-raided; the thieves apparently took a box of digital video cameras.

Discussion in the shop is interrupted by the arrival of Coleridge, an occult book dealer and sometime rival of the Shadows. He tells Arthur that he knows they have the Book of Dead Names, and he offers to buy it for $3000. When Arthur rebuffs him, he goes to $6000, saying he has buyers that the Shadows can’t find themselves – and intimating that he too has issues with Valentine and the Rosicrucians, and might be an ally to the Shadows if the sale goes through. Arthur still knocks him back, suspicious of his real intentions, and Coleridge leaves in an angry huff.

The Shadows leave the head in their safe and go to St Jude’s to check on Oliver, and Charlotte uses witchcraft to accelerate his healing now that the curse has been lifted. Ned is still concerned about his friend, but tells the Shadows that he’ll do whatever he can to help them with their problems, if they ever need him.

As they leave the hospital, Gwen spots a Rosicrucian thug in the waiting room, nursing a broken arm and talking on his mobile phone. The Shadows move to leave, but the thug calls to Gwen – his boss wants to talk. It’s Eamon Burnbridge, and he says his employer wants to sit down in two hours and work things out – no violence, just negotiation, in a place of the Shadows’ choosing. Deciding it’s worth a try, the Shadows agree to meet – in the abandoned train station and reality nexus beneath their shop, where they hold their monthly Shadow Market.
The Shadows return to their shop and race to prepare for the meeting.

Hoping for backup, Arthur calls Dead Ringer to tell him that they have the Book, and can he come now to collect? The undead middleman is thrilled, but won’t be able to cross from the Underworld until after sunset – no joy there.

Gwen makes sure that the escape hatches and secret passages in the Market are clear, and gets a call from Edward Hampton while she works. The family that saw her fight the Blighted Ones are fine, and have written the experience off as a scuffle between street urchins and a homeless woman. He also tells her that five young children are definitely still missing, and that police aren’t getting any closer to finding out what happened to them.

Thomas prepares one of the planar passageways in the station, a thin space between this world and the Night Lands of the chimera. If things go very wrong, they have a way out – but it’s dangerous.

The market is haunted by a few ragged ghosts, undead spirits whose identities have worn away after being trapped in this world too long. Charlotte shows them the head and asks them for information; they cluster and fuss around her, but all she can make out are the words DESTINY and GRAVITY.

As best prepared as they can manage, the Shadows open the doors to the market as the Rosicrucians approach…

Session 5

The day after their last misadventure, the Shadows get breakfast and decide on a plan of action – investigating and hopefully breaking the curse on Ned’s friend Oliver, in the hopes of removing at least one complication from their lives. They head out to St Jude’s Hospital to find Oliver in a shared ward, his left arm a twisted collection of broken bones hung up on traction, and with the Priestess of Spiders’ symbol raised in welts on his bicep.

Oliver is dubious about these ragtag visitors, but Arthur persuades him that they’re here to help. Oliver explains that he was a driver for the Mayor’s office, and known for his willingness to carry out less-legal jobs on the side. For the last few months he’s been at the service of Daraja Valentine, the Mayor’s new Press Secretary/spokesperson – someone the Shadows have clashed with in the past – and doing more and more shady and weird stuff. He opened some packages he was carrying from the airport three weeks ago, and found a large stash of unmarked bills and the head of a statue. Wanting a way out of his job, he took some of the money, dropped the head down a sewer, and claimed that he’d been robbed. The trick didn’t work, and Valentine fired him – but not before having him cursed by some strange creature. Now his bones are slowly snapping and he can’t fix things by giving the money back, because Valentine wants to make an example of him.
While Oliver tells his story, Charlotte magically investigates his injury and finds inhuman curse magic clinging to his bones. She manages to separate the curse, pulling what looks like black, bloody webbing from his skeleton and spirit, and traps it in a jar. Before she can attempt to heal his injuries, a doctor walks in on the scene and calls for security; the family quickly leaves to avoid problems. They confer in the car park and decide that they need to find this missing head, then head back to the antiques shop, unaware that a tattered, inhuman figure watched their actions and is following behind.

While the others prepare for yet another excursion into the sewers, Thomas calls a contact in the police to get the details of Oliver’s robbery claim, and finds that he claimed to be robbed near an abandoned school in the industrial district – a spot that Thomas knows hides a portal to the Night Lands. Ned gives them back the Book of Dead Names, trusting that they’ll do the right thing with it, and goes to see if anyone in the Cave Clan has seen anything.

After some light bickering, the Shadows head into the sewers near the creepy old school. The tunnels are thick with garbage and chemical runoff from the local factories, and although Gwen knows the sewers well, and Arthur brought a metal detector from the shop, navigation proves difficult. Eventually Thomas spots some occult sigils scrawled on walls, along with tracks and clues to suggest that someone’s been down here lately – but rather than searching for something, it’s more likely that they’ve been trying to hide their presence.

Finally, behind a false wall, the Shadows find a shadowy portal that leads to the Night Lands, guarded by a small pack of Blighted Ones – and before they can do anything, the tattered figure drops onto Thomas’ back from the darkness, and the chimera attack! While the creatures are vicious and terrifying, and their leader wields awful curse-magic, Charlotte manages to convince the Blighted Ones to hold back, and Arthur manages to smash the tattered figure in the head with his metal detector, bringing the fight to a quick end.
Falling back from the fight, the chimera leader (Marrow) admits that he put the curse on Oliver, on behalf of Valentine – but that the Blighted Ones have also been hiding the missing artefact from her, and that the rash on Oliver’s arm was meant as a message to the Shadows. The Priestess of Spiders sells her services (and those of her followers) to whoever will pay, but it pleases her to play both ends against the middle and watch the chaos from afar. The chimera return down their dark tunnel to the Night Lands, and Marrow says he’ll see them again at the next Shadow Market to let them know what debt his mistress might claim for aiding them.

And in their wake, the Shadows find a leather case, stamped with the mark of the Rosicrucians, containing an intricately designed brass-and-wood head, whose eyes blink open to watch them for a moment before closing again…

Session 4

With the Shadows gallivanting around town, Gwendolyn Green takes a long bath, reflects on yesterday’s action and gets a call from Councillor Edward Hampton, a recent client, asking her to meet him near City Hall. Hampton’s glad that Gwen rescued his children when they were recently kidnapped, but wants Gwen to tell him the whole story – which she won’t do, because she doesn’t want to explain that his children were taken by Blighted Ones working for the Butcher Bishop and by the way magic is real, etc. Hampton tells her that other children have been vanishing recently; he suspects cult involvement, and has discovered that Rosicrucian agents may be infiltrating City Hall.

In the Library of Lost Dreams, Ned explains to Thomas, Charlotte and Arthur that a friend of his has been cursed, and that he’s trying to find a way to break the spell. He was approached by Coleridge, an occult book dealer and business rival of the Shadows, who promised to lift the curse if Ned would dig through Lagrange Library and bring him the Book of Dead Names. With the Wild Hunt prowling outside, Spindrift helps Charlotte locate a dream-tome with information on the Book; she and Ned go looking for it while Thomas looks for a way out and Arthur ponders the value of magical books.
Gwen’s attempt to discover clues online proves fruitless, so she plays to her strengths – she goes to the 8-Ball Haemorrhage, a dive bar in Chinatown, to beat information out of people. She finds Donovan, an ex-cop who hates her guts, and convinces him to spill what he knows. It’s not much – half a dozen children taken from their homes at night, with no obvious link between them all except that their beds, sheets and mattresses were torn to shreds. The police think it’s kidnapped, not murder, but they don’t know where to go next. Gwen’s heard enough and goes to leave – only to be intercepted at the door by Eamon Burnbridge and his bespoke-suited thugs.

Motivated by thrice-promised rewards from Thomas, Spindrift buys the Shadows some time by arguing with Herne, leader of the Wild Hunt. Ned and Charlotte discover that the Book of Dead Names has sinister qualities; writing someone’s name in it may doom them to death and rebirth as a ghost, and it may also bind those ghosts to it. Charlotte goes deeper into the Library, searching for more information, but she attracts the attention of dream-ghosts, who pursue her through the maze of bookshelves as the Wild Hunt enter the Library! Scattered around the fey library, the Shadows and Ned manage to come together as Thomas pulls open a portal back to New Jerusalem; they escape, but Herne will not let Thomas go so easily, or give up the fate magic bound up in the Book.

Burnbridge admits to respecting Gwen, and he’s grateful that she defended his men from the demon Annüberg last night, but his Rosicrucian masters want the Mitre back. When she explains that they’ve returned it to the Butcher Bishop, he gets pissed; he tells her it’s time to eliminate the bothersome Shadows once and for all, and she can either cooperate or go down with them. Before he can follow through with his threat, Gwen flips the table and attacks the thugs, taking one out and breaking Burnbridge’s hand before jumping out the window and getting to her Vespa.
The Shadows return to the mortal world in the parking lot of Hong’s 24-hour Noodle Bar, just as Gwen races by on her scooter, pursued by two gunmen! A fight breaks out, and while they manage to overpower the thugs, Gwen is shot in the process. They get away before the police arrive, retreating back to their antiques shop. Charlotte treats Gwen’s wounds with witchcraft and Ned shows them a photo of his friend’s cursed injuries – which now bear the mark of the Priestess of Spiders, a powerful chimera that they have dealt with before.

And unseen, a ghostly wisp flits overhead, its senses fixated on Charlotte…

Session 3

After the previous night’s adventures, Gwen needs a break and Vic runs off for an indeterminate period to follow a lead on a ‘hand of glory’ – but Arthur, Charlotte and Thomas Shadow decide to break into Lagrange Library and search for the Book of Dead Names for Dead Ringer.

Arthur works his contacts to find a sewer entrance for the Library – an abandoned reference annex for New Jerusalem University, closed and locked with all its unwanted books left inside, now used as an occasional hangout venue for the urban explorers called the Cave Clan. He finds a way in through a sewer entrance, and a warning – someone else has been asking about the Library lately too.

The three Shadows make their way through the sewers into the Library, discovering a run-down building full of broken shelves and worthless, rotting books. They make their way to the top floor archives to find they’re not alone – Ned Chan, a Cave Clan explorer (and former classmate of Charlotte) is there searching for the Book of Dead Names as well. After some chitchat, Ned tries to escape and Charlotte paralyses him with witchcraft – but before they can leave, they’re attacked by a pack of toad-like goblins!
The Shadows fight off the goblins using magic and falling bookshelves, and carry the paralysed Ned (and the Book) out into the Library – but it has become a mist-filled world of trees and swamps, of fae glamour magic crowding out mundane reality. They try to find their way back to the real world using Thomas’ pathfinding magics, as the sounds of hounds and hunters grow closer, but instead find the entrance to another library – the Library of Lost Dreams, a mystical hub of books and glamour monitored by the crossbow-wielding Spindrift.

As the Wild Hunt closes in, the Shadows look for options and information. Spindrift knows nothing of the Book of Dead Names, but it bears the septagram, the mark of the Splendid Court of the fae. They consider handing it over to their pursuers, but Ned rouses and objects – he needs that book to save the life of his best friend!

Session 2

The Shadows leave Century Park, with the footlocker stowed in Thomas’ car, deciding to head back home rather than search the library tonight. It’s not long before Thomas realises that they’re being followed by a red car with two suit-wearing men in it. He takes a hard corner and the car follows in pursuit, leaving Gwen and Charlotte (on Gwen’s Vespa) far behind. Thomas races through Chinatown, the red car on his heels, until Arthur uses his local knowledge to find them a hiding spot behind a noodle restaurant. They manage to lose the tail, and Thomas recognises the passenger as they drive by – Eamon Burnbridge, a suspect in a couple of murders, linked to the Rosicrucian occult order, that Thomas investigated back in the 1990s during his private investigator days.

Thomas, Arthur and Vic head back to the antiques shop, but Gwen catches up just in time to spot the red car leaving; she gives Charlotte cabfare, then follows the car on her Vespa. She trails them back to Century Park, and watches as they’re joined by two more men in suits- all of them armed with silenced pistols. As they close in on the collapsed fountain, Gwen searches their cars; she finds no straightforward clues, but pulls the driver’s fingerprints before she hears screams, roars and muffled shots. She moves back to the park to see the men in fruitless battle with the goat-headed demon that destroyed the fountain – and cursing herself for a fool, she takes on the monster so that the injured gunmen can escape. Armed with her magical hammer Thumper, she manages to take on the demon for a time, but it’s too strong – so instead she manages to escape through the ruined fountain and into the sewers! Before she can get very far, though, the strain of the fight overwhelms her, and she closes her eyes for a little rest…

The boys make it back to the shop, where Arthur and Thomas examine the footlocker. It’s bound with silver chains, inscribed with magical symbols; Thomas recognises them as marks of Western hermetic magic, sigils that both hide and protect whatever’s in the locker. He inscribes new marks to negate the wards, and Arthur picks the locks; the footlocker opens to reveal a large bishop’s mitre, wrought from white iron rather than cloth, stained with blood and stinking like burning metal. As they wonder what to do with it, Charlotte returns and they realise that Gwen is missing – just as they get a call on the office phone. The man at the other end tells Arthur that his employers want the mitre back, and makes it clear that they’ll pay a heavy price if they don’t cooperate – but Arthur hangs up rather than negotiate, and tries calling Gwen instead.

Gwen wakes in the sewers to the sound of her phone going to voicemail – and the sound of something large hunting through the tunnels. She’s familiar with the sewers, and makes her way towards the university, but the creature manages to stay closeby. Finally, she sees a grate and prepares to leave – but her phone rings again, and the demon breaks through a stone wall to drag her back into darkness…

Worried for Gwen after the second call fails, Arthur and Thomas head out to find her while Vic and Charlotte lock away the mitre. Thomas uses his pathfinding magic to follow the trail of her Vespa to the park – where the police are now on-site – and then to follow her on foot. Eventually they find the sewer entrance and call her again – and find her, bruised but alive, negotiating with her demonic captor to trade away the mitre. Arthur strikes a deal with the demon (its name is Annüberg), promising it the mitre in exchange for cancelling Hell’s claim on Thomas’ soul – and for protection from Burnbridge and his associates.

The men head back to the shop to collect the mitre, while Gwen stays as the demon’s hostage and sits through a lecture on recent political and economic upheavals in Hell. Eventually they return and give the mitre to Annüberg; it signs a contract and slinks away into the sewers, while the Shadows head back to the noodle restaurant for some late night dumplings and debrief.